Seminar on 'Impact of Microfinance Strategies on Agriculture and Allied Sectors'

Date: 20th and 21st August, 2010
Venue: Oceanic Library
Organised by: VSSU
Sponsored by: Planning Commission

Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Uddyan has organised a Seminar on 'Impact of Microfinance Strategies on Agriculture and Allied Sectors' on 20th and 21st August, 2010 at Oceanic Library Premises in Ashok Nilay Complex, South 24 Parganas with financial support from Planning Commission, Govt. of India.

The main objective of the seminar was to make the women of self-help groups, whose livelihoods are associated with agriculture, aware about the micro credit opportunities from government departments, wealth generation through resource mobilisation, bankers help for the farmers, microfinance for agriculture development, impact of microcredit on agriculture, its positive and negative aspects & roles of NGOs, new directions for agriculture & agricultural research, advanced technologies useful for increased production in agriculture, market linkages in local, district & state markets and export opportunities.

In this two-day seminar we had magnificent presence of Mr. Daljeet Singh, Director, (Agriculture) Planning Commission; Mr. D.K. Mustafi, Ex-Dy. Secretary Planning Commission; Mr. P.K. Paul, Chairman, SBEG Consultants Pvt. Ltd.; S.R. Basu, Director, SBEG Consultants Pvt. Ltd.; S.B. Mondal, Ex-Chief of Environment Management Div. Steel Authority of India; Sasadhar Purkait, Ex Prof. of Rahara R.K. Mission B.Ed. College, B.B. Mukhopadhyay, Media Critic, Frontier, Camille Meteye, Bachelor of Law, France; Tapan Kumar Mistri, Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya; Nityabrata Das, Member, ICWA; H.R. Sur, Ex-Assistant General Manager, State Bank of India; Nayan R. Bhattacharya, Ex-Banker, Agri Scientist; Sukanta Das, ADO, Mandir Bazar; Prasanta Sarkhel, Ex-Municipal Chairman; Dr. A.K. Karan, Soil Scientist, IIT, Kharagpur, Ronendra Chowdhury, General Manager-Operation, Bandhan, Manas Bhattacharya, Asst. Project Officer & In-Charge, Agricultural Finance Corporation, Prof. Amit Sengupta, Ex-Prof, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Prof. Asit Baran Ghosh, Dean, Agri., Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, Pratul Das, Asstt. Director of Agri. (Subject Matter), Mrs. Ekta Jaju, Marketing Director, ONergy, Prabir Kr. Sarkar, Ex. Jt. Director, Micro & Small Scale Industries, T.K. Jana, Training & Preserved Agri Marketing Officer, Rakibul Rahaman, Block Development Officer, Mandir Bazar Block, Amitava Naiya, Sr. Br. Manager, National Insurance Corporation who have graced the seminar with their benign presence and provided an in-depth exploration in respect to the captioned subject.

Almost 150 participants attended the seminar each day including the women from self-help groups, villagers, school teachers and people from different disciplines.

All of the dignitaries' speeches were very important and valuable for VSSU as well as for its women participants. We got many new directions and advanced information in regard to agriculture and allied sectors from the discussion so as to successfully achieve the goal of organizing this seminar.

The result of the seminar will be sent to the Planning Commission with the opinions from the SHG women which, according to Mr. Daljeet Singh, Director (agriculture), Planning Commission, will be taken under consideration.

Vivekananda Shakti Kendra
A Renewable Energy Centre
(Solar | Wind | Hydro | Bio - Energy)

Vivekananda Sevakendra-O-Sishu Uddyan has inaugurated a Renewable Energy Centre, 'Vivekananda Shakti Kendra' (VSK) on our Republic Day, 26th January, 2010 in collaboration with ONery, Sankalpa/ARTS, Kolkata based organizations with technical support from 'Barefoot Power', Australian Company. The noble presence of Mr. Sushobhan Bhattacharya, Director in-Charge West, Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency as Chief Guest, Mr. Subhash. Acharya, Joint Project Director, Sunderban Development Board, Prof. P. Ghosh from School of Energy, Jadavpur University, Mrs. Punam Jaju, Director Punam Jaju Energy Ltd., Mr. P Chottoraj, Eastern Region Director, Patrolem Conservation Research Association, Mr. Prasant Sarkel, Chairman, Joynagar Municipality, Mr. Sorobindu Mohanta, Joint Director, Paroleim Conservation Research Association, Mr. Joy Chakroborty, Asst. Director, West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency had conferred the inauguration a grand success.

This center is one of its kinds in South 24 Parganas and is intended to be a focal hub to create awareness and incrementally deploy & install renewable energy solutions across South 24 Parganas. VSK assists village-based communities in South 24 Parganas and in Sunderbans lacking clean energy to gain access to affordable but high quality products, services and effective renewable energy technologies that best reflect the needs of the target beneficiary communities and groups in need.

Different products like - Solar LED Lamps, home lighting systems, biomass gassifiers, Biogas, Solar Cookers and improved stoves and chulahs are available at VSK and through a network of entrepreneurs and NGO's across south 24 parganas at cost affective prices that the villagers can afford and pay over a period of time through micro-credit.